DreamHack Summer 2017 Preview

15 June 2017 09:00

DreamHack Summer 2017, the world’s largest digital festival, takes place in Jönköping, Sweden, from June 17th to June 20th.

There’s a huge emphasis on eSports at this event, with incredible tournaments lined up for CS:GO, Hearthstone, Starcraft II WCS, Heroes of the Storm, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Street Fighter V and Rocket League. Founded in 1994 by Kenny Eklund and Martin Ojes, there are two major festivals a year in Sweden - DreamHack Summer in June and November’s DreamHack Winter.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive: DreamHack ASTRO Open

Eight of the world’s best teams will compete in the CS:GO DreamHack ASTRO Open for a share of the $100,000 prize pool.

The group stage sees the eight teams split into two groups of four:

Group A

SK Gaming - Brazil

Mousesports – Germany

Immortals - Brazil

Singularity - Denmark

Group B

Gambit – CIS

Fnatic – Sweden

Cloud9 - USA

CLG – North America

The action begins with best-of-one clashes as Group A’s SK Gaming face Singularity and Mousesports – captained by Sergey “Imbt” Bezhanov - play Immortals. DHW16 champions Gambit, led by Mykhailo “kane” Blagin, take on CLG in Group B, with Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson’s Fnatic coming up against Cloud 9. The two winners from each group face off against each other in winners’ matches leading onto best-of-three Group A and B elimination matches. From there, there’s Group A and B decider matches and semi-finals, with the showpiece grand final at 19:00 local time on Monday 19th June.

Six of the eight teams received direct invites to the event, with Singularity and CLG having to come through qualifiers to reach this stage. Singularity qualified with a 2-1 win over Team 123 in the best-of-three European qualifier finals, with Peter “Inzta” Kragelund, Allan “AnJ” Jensen, Thomas “Ryxxo” Nielsen, Lucas “Lukki” Pilheden and Mads “Console” Skovby securing the all-important victory for the Danish side. Jensen particularly impressed, with a KD of 80-66, a 91.4 ADR and 70.7% KAST.

CLG booked their place in Group B by overcoming 2-1 Renegades in the North American region, with Stephen “reltuC” Cutler, Kenneth “koosta” Suen, Ethan “nahtE” Arnolod, Pujan “FNS” Mehta and Ricky “Rickeh” Mulholland the five men responsible for securing their place in Group B. Cutler stood out for CLG in the final, finishing with a 59-53 KD, 77.5 ADR and 75.6% KAST.

Hearthstone: DreamHack Hearthstone Grand Prix

The DreamHack Hearthstone Grand Prix was launched in 2015, and more than 200 players will battle it out in Jönköping for a share of the $25,000 prize pool. In what is an open Swiss-format nine-round group stage, anyone could sign up for the open tournament regardless of rank and skill. The best sixteen players from the 200-player group stage will then advance to the play-offs in a Round of 16 best-of-five single elimination bracket. Following Round 16, there’s the quarter and semi-finals leading to the showpiece grand final at 20:15 on Monday 19th June.

Among the 200 players named for this Hearthstone gaming extravaganza are Mitsuhide, DreamHack Winter 2016 champion, Reynad, who secured a third/fourth place finish at DreamHack Austin, and greenshep, DreamHack Valencia 2015 champion. All players will be targeting a place in the grand final and shot at glory in one of the most prestigious Hearthstone tournaments on the calendar.

The $25,000 prize pool is shared amongst all the players who reach the play-offs, with first place receiving $7,500, $3,500 going to the runner-up, and third and fourth place taking home $2,050. DreamHack Summer, Sweden, is the second of seven DreamHack events to feature the Hearthstone Grand Prix this year. In April’s DreamHack Austin event, Shoop took first place, with MrLEGO coming second and Trump finishing third. There’s further live events in Valencia and Atlanta in July, Montreal in September, Denver in October and back to Sweden in November and December.

Starcraft II: World Championship Series

The Starcraft II WCS will see 64 players compete for a $100,000 prize pool and 11,000 WCS points from the NA, EU, LATAM, CN, TW and ANZ/SEA regions, with the winner also going through to the end-of-year WCS Global Finals. The group stages lead onto a play-off bracket, and the WCS event in Jönköping is one of four taking place this year, with Starcraft II WCS events in Valencia in July and Montreal in September. In April’s WCS Austin, Neeb took home first place, Nerchio came second, and Major and TRUE came third and fourth.

The full prize pool and WCS points breakdown for Jönköping is below:

1st place - $25,000 and 3,000 WCS points

2nd place - $10,000 and 1,400 WCS points

3rd place - $6,500 and 900 WCS points

4th place - $6,500 and 900 WCS points

5th – 8th place - $4,000 and 600 WCS points

9th – 16th place - $2,500 and 300 WCS points

17th place – 32nd place - $1,000

Heroes of the Storm: Mid-Season Brawl

The Heroes of the StormMid-Season brawl play-offs will take place during DreamHack Summer 2017, with the group stages being played separately in Stockholm. Twelve teams will compete for $100,000 from the $250,000 prize pool for coming first, with $50,000 going to second place and third place receiving $20,000. The play-offs see two teams qualify directly for the semi-finals from the group stage in the upper bracket play-offs, and the teams finishing third and fourth will progress into the Losers’ Round One lower bracket. The play-offs are a best-of-five double elimination, leading to a best-of-seven grand final. The groups are as follows:

Group A

Fnatic

CE

MVP Black

Roll20 eSports

Nomia

DeadlyKittens

Group B

L5

Tempo Storm

Team Dignitas

eStar Gaming

Soul Torturers

RED Candids

Super Smash Bros. Melee: Smash Championship

The DreamHack Smash Championship 2017 season sees six events in total, with $100,000 in prize money to be won overall. There will be four events in North America, and two in Sweden, including this month in Jönköping. Alliance are one of the teams competing, represented by Adam “Armada” Lindgren and Andreas “Android” Lindgren. The prize pool is as follows:

1st place: $5,000

2nd place: $2,500

3rd place: $1,000

4th place: $500

5th place: $300

6th place: $300

7th place: $200

8th place: $200

A feast of action awaits over the course of these four days in what is sure to be eSports gaming of the highest quality.